Jean Cras

Biography

Jean Cras (1879–1932) was a remarkable man by anyone’s measure. Twice a decorated hero of the Great War, this Rear-Admiral of the French Navy, scientist, inventor and moral philosopher was also a highly esteemed composer during his lifetime, enjoying, during the last decade of his life, the same stature and celebrity as Fauré, Debussy and Ravel. Since his death in 1932, his music was overlooked until 1980, when his last surviving daughter, Monique, released the first monograph of the composer for the centenary of her father's birth. This assured his renaissance. Cras’ thirty-eight early songs extend from adolescence to his early twenties, and with this publication, performers and scholars are now able to trace his evolution as one of France’s greatest composers of mélodie from the post-Romantic and Impressionist eras. This collection both complements and completes the published repertoire of Cras’ prodigious song cycles: Elégies, L’Offrande lyrique, Fontaines and Cinq Robaïyats de Omar Khayyam, and his individual songs, as analyzed in depth by Paul-André Bempéchat in his seminal biography, Jean Cras, Polymath of Music and Letters (Routledge, 2009). Analyses of these newly-published songs will be found in the second edition, released in 2021 (Peter Lang).  Through the chronological presentation of Cras’ youthful songs, we witness a remarkable evolution of both prosodic andharmonic ingenuity, demanding of the singer increasingly acute attention to enunciation and inflection; for both pianist and singer, coloration and unfailing fidelity to the rhythm of language.

ISBN: 978-3631742518

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Mélodies de jeunesse, 1892 – 1901 The Early Songs

Presented by: Paul-André Bempéchat

with associate editors Benjamin Ayotte and Emmanuèle Goulon

A collection of the youthful songs of Jean Cras (1897 - 1932), the celebrated Breton post-impressionist composer, presented by Paul-André Bempéchat and edited by Benjamin Ayotte and Emmanuèle Goulon.

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ISBN: 978-0-9892735-7-2

$85 | €85 | £75 | ¥9,500 | $115 CAD

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Songs included in the collection

• A une enfant ‘To a Little Girl’ (Victor Hugo)

• Dans l’alcôve sombre ‘In the Dark Alcove’ (Victor Hugo)

• Chanson ‘Song’ (Victor Hugo)

• Je suis l’oiseau ‘I am the Bird’ (Armand Silvestre)

• Nuit de lune ‘Moonlit Night’ (Jean Rameau)

• Ballade ‘Ballad’ (André van Hasselt)

• Avril ‘April’ ( Jean Rameau)

• Les trois oiseaux ‘The Three Birds’ (François Coppée)

• Brunette ‘Brunette’ (André Theuriet)

• Triste exilé ‘Forlorn Exile’ (François Coppée)

• Au mois de rose éclose ‘The Month of Blooming Roses’ (Jean Aicard)

• Mutisme ‘Silence’ (Alfred Droin)

• Les Morceaux du Paradis ‘Pieces of Heaven’ (Jean Rameau)

• Chanson d’automne ‘Song of Autumn’ (Jacques Normand)

• Chanson d’été ‘Song of Summer’ (François Coppée)

• Chanson de printemps ‘Song of Spring’ (Edouard Pailleron)

• Hiver ‘Winter’ (Clément Lanquine)

• Chanson d’hiver ‘Song of Winter’ (Charles-Jean Grandmougin)

• Chanson japonaise ‘Japanese Song’ (George Auriol)

• Avril d’amour ‘April of Love’ (Auguste Marin)

• Aurore ‘Dawn’ (Alfred Droin)

• Elégie ‘Elegy’ (Alfred de Musset)

• Ophélie ‘Ophelia’ (Armand Silvestre)

• Chant d’automne ‘Song of Autumn’ (Charles Baudelaire)

• Les chaînes ‘The Chains’ (Sully Prud’homme)

• Chant d’amour ‘Song of Love’ (Armand Silvestre)

• La chanson du souvenir ‘The Song of Remembrance’ (Armand Silvestre)

• Derniers vers de Musset ‘Musset’s Last Verses’ (Alfred de Musset)

• Viens, Chère ‘Come, Dear’ (Edmond Pailler)

• Vierge lointaine ‘Distant Virgin’ (Alfred Droin)

• Minute d’extase ‘A Moment of Ecstasy’ (Alfred Droin)

• Heures ternes ‘Tedium’ (Maurice Maeterlinck)

• Désirs d’hiver ‘Winter Longings’ (Maurice Maeterlinck)

• La vie antérieure ‘A Former Life’ (Charles Baudelaire)

• Mélancolie ‘Melancholy’ (Armand Silvestre)

• La cloche ‘The Bell’ (Georges Rodenbach)

• Puisque nulle moisson au monde ‘Since No Crop in the World’ (Christian Maréchal)